With more than thirteen years of sales and use tax experience, Ms. Pizzo has advised companies representing a variety of industries such as, multinational integrated exploration and production companies, electric and gas utilities, refining and marketing, pipeline and transportation, and diverse manufacturing operations.

Ms. Pizzo has a primary specialty in the energy industry and more specifically those jurisdictions with oil/gas plays such as in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming. She has also assisted clients in other industries including paper manufacturing, contractors, retail, telecommunications, and entertainment.

Prior to joining A&M, Ms. Pizzo was a Senior Consultant with the Sales and Use Tax consulting practice of Ryan & Company.

Ms. Pizzo earned a bachelor's degree in marketing and a master's degree in finance from Louisiana State University. She is a certified member of the Institute for Professionals in Taxation ("IPT") and a co-chair and board member for the A&M Women's Leadership Connection. Ms. Pizzo is a frequent speaker at various tax and energy related organizations, such as TEI, ETA, IPT, and STARTUP.

In the decades since the physical presence nexus standard for use tax collection was established by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, electronic commerce has grown to enormous proportions. Thanks to the physical presence rule established for remote sellers in Quill, many online sellers are not required to collect tax in all of the states where the retailer has customers.

Every organizational event has a tax impact, yet tax is rarely integrated with other business functions within a company. Historically the corporate tax department, specifically, the indirect tax department, has operated as a function apart from other business functions such as business development, procurement, legal and IT. As a result, a company may see decreased synergies, which can lead to inefficient processes, manual manipulations, underutilized technology and fewer forward-thinking initiatives. Consider what an advantage it could be if the indirect tax team were in regular communication with and shared information with critical business units.

The U.S. economy is constantly fluctuating, which makes for an ever-changing landscape in corporate America. For many companies, uncertainty in the economy can result in an array of changes such as downsizing, mergers, acquisitions and expansions. Keeping up with corporate changes and their impact on business operations can be a daunting task for the corporate sales and use tax department, especially since most tax departments are in a constant state of maintaining compliance and reactively defending the compliance during audits from various taxing jurisdictions.

Last year, many early-stage companies significantly reduced payroll taxes thanks to a new federal tax credit including many of our start-ups in the tech industry. The Qualified Small Business (QSB) R&D Tax Credit, passed into law in 2015, allows qualified small businesses to offset OASDI (i.e. social security) taxes with R&D tax credits originally claimed on federal income tax returns. The 2018 calendar year presents yet another opportunity for companies to realize these savings. How are these credits achieved?